Camp Grandma 2014

Dear Dexter,

A couple weeks ago you spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa.  Erin and Daddy and I stayed home and were kind of bored without you (although it was quiet here.  So, so, so very quiet.  Ahhhhhh.)  And you?  You did a lot of train playing and cookie eating and book reading and LEGO building.  Oh, and swimming.  A whole lot of swimming.  Mostly without pants.  Cuz the slide is faster that way.

On Sunday at Grandma's house my cousin Alaina came down with four of her five kids.  You enjoyed swimming in the pool with the three girls.  Grandpa said that of all the kids, you screamed the loudest at the pool.  You also played in the sandbox with your cousins - you told me about the road you built, and how Julian kept smashing it with his foot.  You thought that was pretty cool.  And then you took all your cousins up in the garage to see Grandpa's trains and all the "blockers" you made on the track so that the Thomas trains would not be able to go through the tunnel.  Later that week, when I was there, you spent lots of time getting Percy to crash in to the blockers so he could have an accident.  Poor Percy had lots of accidents.

On Monday you and Grandpa went to the Museum of the Earth.  You wandered through a glacier, and looked at fossils under a microscope.  You got to bring a couple fossils home with you.  Grandpa took you to Purity for ice cream, and then Daddy came for a few hours in the afternoon to swim with you and give you a hug on his way home from Massena.

On Tuesday at lunch time you called me to tell me about the flood of water in the sand box, and about the trains you had set up.  Two trains in the dining room and one train in the living room.  Apparently you and Grandpa had a fun morning.  Then you went to Aunt Jeanne's house to eat dinner and roast some marshmallows over her "Big Bang" fire pit.  You called around 8:30 - I was surprised you were going to bed so early, but you said that there was lots of lightning so you had to go inside.

Wednesday you and Aunt Jeanne and Aunt Maria and Grandma and Grandpa all went to the Museum of Science and Technology in the morning, and then to Dinosaur BBQ for lunch.  You very much enjoyed eating your Dinosaur fingers, and you liked standing under the rocket ship at the MOST, and playing in the huge indoor playground.

Catapault

3-2-1 Blast off!

Flight Simulator

Belly up to the bar, with your lemonade and your volcano book

Thursday you hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's house, playing with LEGO's and building a pirate ship and swimming and playing with trains.

Building a LEGO cherry picker

Pirate ship

Friday Erin and I arrived, and your nice quiet week of being the only child ended abruptly as Erin wanted nothing more than to spend every second of every day with you.  We spent the weekend, and enjoyed a visit from Aunt Maria, Aunt Jeanne, and my friend Gina with her son Samuel.  We swam for hours every day, and played with trains and baby strollers and car ramps and chalk in Grandpa's garage.

On Tuesday morning when we were packing you told me you didn't want to go home.  You wanted to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I'm glad you had a fun week there.  And I am sorry that Grandma and Grandpa live so far away.  From my perspective, it makes your visits there all the more special because you don't get to play with those things all the time.  I know you are looking forward to returning in August.

Happy Camp Grandma 2014!  I love you!

Mama

I Missed My Coffee Boy

We had a well-laid-out plan.  John would take Dexter to Grandma's house on his way to Massena to hang out with his dad.  Nonna would go to New York City to visit Christy.  Maria would come see Dexter while he was at Grandma's house.  Mama and Erin would stay home and be pretty bored, because Dexter entertains us all.  It was a good plan.

And then my cousin died.  And the memorial service was scheduled for Saturday.  When Dex was already supposed to be in NY.

Like all plans this, too, could be changed.  John went to Massena Friday morning and got there in time for dinner.  Dex went to his last day of Nature Camp (total success - he loved it) and then came home for the afternoon and waited for Grandma and Grandpa to come.  Grandma and Grandpa spent Friday night with us and then went with the kids and I to the memorial service on Saturday.  They took Dexter home to NY from the memorial service and Erin and I went shopping in Lancaster.  I fed her some ice cream and took her to some shoe stores.  She was in heaven.

And then Erin and I spent Sunday and Monday all alone.  Which was fine, really.  Sunday we went to the pool at the Y, because it was free for the weekend.  Erin was entertained for an hour or so and then called it quits.  We swam in our own pool in the afternoon and had a wonderful day.  Monday morning we went to Longwood, and then in the afternoon we went to Fair Hill for an ice cream social I was invited to.  Again, Erin was in heaven.  Horse pictures and statues to look at.  Ice cream to eat.  Pretty much all a girl could ask for.

It's way, WAY easier just having one kid to chase around.  And way quieter.  And so nice to have afternoon nap time to myself.  Erin misses Dexter, usually when we are in the car or eating dinner.  That's usually when we call him so Erin can say hi.  And she missed Daddy - she was so cute this morning showing John everything she was playing with.

Me?  I mostly missed my coffee boy.  I was responsible for making my own coffee in the morning, which means I had to remember to do it the night before and turn on the timer.  I survived.  But I missed my coffee boy.

Some time the end of the week Erin and Buddy and I will trek up to NY to fetch Dex.  And some time we will come back home.  We're in no hurry.  We've got nothing planned for next week.  And Grandpa has a Keureg, so it's way easier to make my own coffee there.

Here's some super cute photos of Erin being super cute at Longwood yesterday.  I am going to be very sad when the kids are no longer fascinated by this place.  The fountains.  The stairs.  The getting wet.  The chimes.  The getting wet some more.  It's such a lovely place for kids.

How many eleventy million times have we been here?  And Erin led me on a walk to a place I have never been to before.

The ceiling of this very cute gazebo we walked past

Sometimes you've gotta get way up on your tippy-toes...

So you can reach cool stuff like this

Sheer joy here for a good ten minutes.  And then we sat on a bench right here and ate some crackers.  An entirely enjoyable snack time experience.

Puddle jumping.  There were some boys playing with us who did the same thing.  But she will play in any puddle she can find, any time, so it's not entirely the boys' fault.

Running on the bee pathway.  This she learned from her brother, of course.

I love this shot of Erin.  She was playing BOO inside the tiny little child-sized house in the garden.

We moved inside to play in the fountains there

And to get REALLY REALLY wet.

She has not yet learned to stick her whole head under the water, but I am sure that will come in due time.

She saw this fountain and said "Mama!  RAAWRRR!"

So then she wanted to pet the RAAWRRR

She is way too cute

Especially when she shows me her teeth.

We've got some plans for the rest of the week, and we might hit the gym a couple mornings.  Which Erin DOES NOT like to do without Dexter.  But she's going to have to deal.  For another couple days she's an only child and Dex is having a blast being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.  It's a pretty good deal.

Happy Day

Back in May I taught Erin how to say Happy Birthday, for Daddy's birthday.  She skipped the birthday part, but came downstairs telling John "Happy Day."  It was so cute.  So today before we came downstairs I tried teaching her how to say Happy Father's Day.  She, once again, came down saying "Happy Day."  It was fine.  It made John smile.  And it WAS a happy day.  John and I went to brunch at The Whip and left the kids home with Aunt Maria.  Everyone took an afternoon nap.  We went to get ice cream.  And we did a little photo shoot with the kids and John, with special help from Aunt Maria to keep children entertained.  Bubbles, man.  They are a wonderful thing.  Erin also called Grandpa Cowan to say "Happy Day" to him, as well, and she had a lovely time jumping for Nonna and Grandpa on Skype.  Happy Day, indeed.

This was the best photo I could get of the three of them.  After about 20 shots John asked if I had any decent ones.  Well, no, I said.  No I don't.  But it'll have to do, because the little one's patience was running thin.

Cuz although this looks like laughter I think it is in fact a scream of protest.  Daddy, let go!

This one is pretty awesome, though.  Maybe we can photoshop in the baby...

And then the kids chased bubbles and threw frisbees 

Oh, yes.  And drove cars.  At one point every single bubble container we owned also was driving in the car.  It is currently a very soapy car.

This Week in Pictures

We've had a nice week around here.  Aunt Maria has been here all week and Dexter has LOVED having someone new to play with.  It took Erin from Monday til about Wednesday to not cry every time she saw Aunt Maria, but now she has warmed up to her and will happily play with her (so long as Mama is not around).  And after a dreary and rainy week, Saturday was crystal clear and perfect, so we spent pretty much the entire day outside.  Until Dex came in crying with a sore throat.  Which some Ibuprofen seems to have fixed, so hopefully it's nothing serious.

Anyway, here's our week in pictures, beginning with Monday.  Dexter's LAST DAY at the CCUI Preschool.  We have opted not to send him this summer to school, and to instead send him to some fun summer camps with regular kids.  It's going to be a little weird, I think, to not be there any more.  For 2.5 years Ms. Pam has been my question answerer and Dexter's biggest cheerleader.  I'll miss her.

Dex wrote this sign all on his own.

Erin was very excited when Dex came in.  She ran up to find him, and spent the whole ceremony right next to him.  Ms Wendy finally got her a chair of her own.

Here's the video from Graduation, as well (click link)

On Tuesday we took Aunt Maria strawberry picking.  The berries were HUGE so both of us filled a container each in about 20 minutes.  Fastest berry picking ever.

Erin did zero picking, but plenty of tasting.  My berry container had many many berries with one bite mysteriously missing...

Must have berries in the car.  Just in case you get hungry.

I don't know who taught this kid how to drive.

She LOVES this car.  She asks to go "side" and play with her "NEEERM" all the time

This morning we went to the airport for pancake breakfast and an open house.  Dexter said he most enjoyed the moon bounce, and watching the airplanes take off.  Erin, I believe, most enjoyed pancakes and sticking her propeller toy in to Dexter's shoe.

Erin's sign for "airplane."

Lots of planes today.  They were doing lots of free flights for kids.  Our kids were not old enough.  Bummer.

There was also a very small antique car show

Yes, Daddy, I think I would look GREAT driving this car...

The kids were celebrating Flag Day today with their flag shirts.

Dex spent a few minutes in the pool this afternoon.  It was breezy and cool outside, so he didn't stay in for too long.

So we moved on to blowing bubbles with a cool bubble bucket that Aunt Maria brought.

There were lots of bubbles all over the yard this afternoon

Dex was blowing big big bubbles.  I can't remember what he called them.  Bent bubbles?

Whatever he called them, they were pretty cool.  (Editor's Note - Bulging Bubbles.  He calls them Bulging Bubbles)

Erin got up from nap time (her first nap using Dexter's cool My Tot Clock) and joined in on the bubble action.

Erin tried hard to blow her own bubbles.  She enjoyed putting her bubble stick in the bucket.  Many many times.

Dex got a cool propeller toy at the airport, which he discovered he could spin and fly in the back yard.  It was cool.  So we flew our kite and spun propellers in the yard before lunch today.

Giggles

Dex was taking video of Erin blowing bubbles.

Who killed the dog?

He really doesn't fit any more in this car

But Erin fits just right

Looking forward to a lovely Father's Day tomorrow!